Vermont

Top income tax rate: 8.95%Sales tax: 6%Property tax per capita: $2,166Estate tax: 0.8% to 16% with a $2.75 million exemption

Vermont businesses are seeing a federal tax increase this year -- an estimated $21 per employee -- after the state failed to pay back a federal loan taken when its unemployment fund went bankrupt two years ago. A temporary rise in the sales tax is set to expire in mid-2013 after helping Vermont climb out of a budgetary hole. Vermont is one of 14 states that tax Social Security income.